“Axel?” Her voice shook.
He plucked up two clothespins with a wicked grin, then hustled back to her side. “Right here,” he assured. “I didn’t go far. I never will.”
When he cupped her breast, she gave a breathy little jump, then settled again with an embarrassed smile. He brushed his thumb over the dark berry of her nipple, fascinated with the way it engorged and tightened, the tip lengthening, the areola bunching. His mouth watered.
Axel bent to her and suckled one of her succulent nipples, taking a long pull on her sensitive flesh before he swiped his tongue over the nub. Her body twitched, her shoulders jerked, as if she wanted to reach out and touch him, cup him closer. But all trussed up, she couldn’t do anything more than allow him to do his worst.
With a stinging little nip of his teeth, he withdrew from that nipple to direct his attention to the other. As he took the neglected one onto his tongue, he groped around for the first of the clothespins. He licked gently at the hard nub in his mouth, moaning low at the feel of her hardening around his lips, even as he pressed the clothespin open and slowly closed it around the first nipple he’d prepared.
Instantly, she sucked in a hissing breath between clenched teeth. The sound eventually turned ragged and breathy, becoming a whimper.
“Quiet,” he reminded. “Breathe.”
“It hurts.”
“Give it a minute,” he crooned, then resumed toying with her unadorned nipple. When he was satisfied it, too, was ready, he grabbed the other clothespin and applied it. “Breathe through it. Wait for it . . .”
Soon, the makeshift clamps did their job, trapping the blood in her swollen nipples. Suddenly, her little whimpers turned to startled gasps, one after the other. She thrust her nipples at him.
Axel dragged his lips in the warm, musky valley between her breasts. “What do you feel?”
“It hurt at first.” She breathed out, as if trying to empty her lungs enough to suck in a whole breath. “Then it tapered to a sweet stinging. It was as if all the nerve endings in my body rushed to my nipples and . . .” She didn’t finish the sentence, just gave a plaintive sigh. “My entire body is on fire.”
Because she liked a little bite and loved being restrained. Because he’d fucked with her body and her head, making her wonder and feel and ache.
Damn it, he intended to punish her, leave her needing and begging for a while so she’d know what it felt like to wonder where he was and what he intended to do. But the sight of her turning rosy and arching closer, dragging in choppy breaths just couldn’t wait.
He ripped off his shirt and shucked everything below his waist in record time, then grabbed a condom and tossed it on the mattress before launching himself on the little bed, wincing when the box springs protested. The squeaking might wake up Aunt Gail but being this close to Mystery, he was beyond giving a fuck about that.
Once he settled himself in the middle of the bed, he reached for her, wrapping his hands around her middle. When he lifted her, Mystery yelped.
“What are you doing?” she whispered feverishly.
He held her suspended above his body. “I won’t drop you.”
“I know. But this feels so . . . weird.” She tried to flail but could only move her torso.
He held her, biceps and forearms bunching and working, as he stabilized her. “Stop. Be still. You’re in my hands. Give yourself over to me.”
“But if I fall—”
“Will I let you?” He zipped the question at her.
She stopped fidgeting, relaxed, sighed. “No.”
“No,” he assured as he lowered her to straddle his thighs. Then he took her cheeks in his hands, brushing stray tresses from her face and breasts. “I’m not going to do anything but make you come so hard, you’ll want to scream the walls down.”
Her breath caught, turned jagged. She nodded. “Okay.”
Smiling at her, Axel leaned in and captured her mouth. This. Right here. He belonged in whatever space she inhabited, with his mouth on hers, tasting her, being one with her. Every time he touched her just reinforced his belief.
He groaned as he nudged her lips apart and surged inside her mouth. He circled her tongue with his own, stroking, caressing, teasing, pulling back, then plunging deep again.
Exactly like he planned to do with his cock.
Axel brushed his fingertips over the clothespins dangling from her nipples, jostling them on her sensitive flesh. Instantly, she gasped with the shock of sensation.
“You’re so beautifully restrained and totally at my mercy, aren’t you?”
She nodded. “Yes, Axel.”
The thin syllables went straight to his cock. “Are you wet?”
“Yes,” she answered even more quickly.
“Do you ache for me?” He caressed her thighs, his thumbs rubbing so close to her cunt.
“Yes. Help me.”
Mystery sounded downright desperate, and that’s exactly the way Axel wanted her.
“Do you want me to touch you?” he taunted, dragging his knuckles up the pad of her pussy before trailing his fingertips down, nearly to her clit.
“Please. Now,” she pleaded. “Yes.”
“I like your enthusiasm, but . . .” He stopped just shy of probing her wet folds and withdrew his touch.
She mewled in protest. “Axel!”
He nipped her earlobe in warning. “If you can’t be quiet, I can’t touch you anymore.”
“I will,” she promised. “Just don’t leave me like this.”
“I have something in mind.”
Mystery sent him a frustrated grunt but didn’t protest otherwise. He took her silence as assent and smiled at her. She couldn’t see him, but if she could, she’d know she should worry.
Axel gripped her around the waist and lifted her again. As she gasped and tried to flail a bit once more, he leaned back on the pillows and held her above him.
“Mystery . . .” His voice lashed the air between them in warning.
Instantly, she stilled and fell silent. She bowed her head, looking somewhere between chagrined and beautifully submissive.
“Good. Remember to be quiet.”
Leaving her to ponder his meaning, Axel lowered Mystery on top of him, settling her thighs on either side of his head. He raised his face to her pussy and raked his tongue through her wet folds.
“Axel!” she squealed, a high-pitched cry full of sensual panic and need.
In answer, he devoured her clit, flicking it with the tip of his tongue, then laving the sensitive bud with the flat. He reveled in the way she squirmed on top of him, looking for either control or relief. He didn’t allow either. Instead, he gripped her hips in his hands and eliminated her ability to move. Mystery might be sitting on top of him, but Axel wanted to make sure she didn’t have any illusion that she held the power. He set the pace. He provided the sensations he chose to give her. He alone determined when she orgasmed . . . or if.
When he clamped his fingers around her hips, restraining them as fully as the rest of her body, she panted and struggled harder.
He dug his fingers into her flesh and withdrew his mouth from her cunt. “Are you giving yourself over to me? Or fighting for what you think you want?”
Mystery let her head roll back on her shoulders and sucked in a breath. “Fighting. I don’t know how to just give myself up.”
“You’re going to learn, princess. Whether we’re talking about pleasure or danger, I’m always going to do what’s best for you. But you have to let me. Relax. Let your mind go and give your will to me.”
She gnawed on her lip again, her entire body strung tightly. Finally, she dragged in a couple of long breaths and let them out in controlled exhalations. Then she nodded. “I’ll try.”
“Just surrender.”
Above him, she relaxed her thighs and forced her breathing to even out.
She gave in.
With his dick aching and his patience running out, he lifted her back over his face and surged up, latching onto her pussy again, tormenting her clit with his tongue.